TREMORS
DIS-LIST
BY MICHELLE MARTIN
40
Shaky legs and trembling hands or facial muscles are among the afflictions patients with Parkinson’s disease commonly contend. Tremors such as these commonly persist when people are at rest and are often made worse by stress or strong emotions. In addition to these resting tremors, more than 25% of patients with Parkinson’s also have a tremor when they are active. Tremors may first appear in only one side of the body before moving to both sides. And though not life-threatening, tremors can make activities of daily life more challenging, possibly even threatening a patient’s ability to live independently.
More research needs to be done on the effects of cannabis on tremors, because as is often the case, the research that has been done is often small scale and the results are not verified by further studies. The research has yet to detail the extent of benefits, risks, and clinical uses of cannabis. What has been done suggests that tremors in patients with Parkinson’s may be helped with cannabis while evidence for patients with multiple sclerosis is either non conclusive or shows no response. This year, a small, yet well-constructed study of 24 patients with Parkinson’s found that CBD
